I have not updated my blog for a while, partly because I was running out of solid materials to translate. Now I discovered a series by a coin/bank note dealer at the Lugong Market in Shanghai, the biggest coin market in China. He covers what was missing from my past posts, namely recent precious metal coins, circulating coins, and market analysis of such coins. His posts started at the end of 2011, and have been running ever since. I will pick what I think is important and translate them for those who do not know Chinese. The original posts are located here:

Both are my favourite themes and I my thoughts were always in line with those translated.Moreover, one of the main advantages of the NPM circulation coins that I appreciate most, is their legal easy handling, those are coins that have exquisitely numismatic value, they can command a high values but at the same time have the advantage of stamps - they are not under the law of PM trade and transportation, many countries have more or less strict laws on PM import/export and at some time it can change drastically, PM is really tasty piece for any goverment, while in trouble. And with $1000 CuNi coin only feww people know its true value.

Just want to mention that DanDan's (bomber8) comments were posted between September 2011 and March 2012. The market of MCC has changed significantly since then. The valuation of coins mentioned in his posts has dropped, some of them are more than 50%. The circulated Cu-Ni and aluminum coins are for collector, not for investors/speculators. The mintages of 1984-1995 coins are several millions and recent issued are more than 10 millions. They are related to grade rarity, not mintage rarity, similar to US Indian and Lincoln Cents.

Just want to mention that DanDan's (bomber8) comments were posted between September 2011 and March 2012. The market of MCC has changed significantly since then. The valuation of coins mentioned in his posts has dropped, some of them are more than 50%. The circulated Cu-Ni and aluminum coins are for collector, not for investors/speculators. The mintages of 1984-1995 coins are several millions and recent issued are more than 10 millions. They are related to grade rarity, not mintage rarity, similar to US Indian and Lincoln Cents.

Last time I checked, Ningxia is still selling around 900 Yuan. But of course you know better than me on the markets.

Thanks for the new link.

The current valuation of Cu-Ni proof and UNC posted at jibi.net is for coins from original bank roll, which will have an average grade of MS65 or PR66. The coins for sale in the market place are usually lower grade.

Would be interested to read more about Proof and Pattern of the various 1 Yuan coins as not much discussion is focus on them.

These are expensive now and Dandan avoids talking about expensive coins as his readers are mostly starters. I will translate some posts by the circulating guru Sun Keqing on circulating proof coins and patterns when I have time.